A look at what's going on in Trinidad, on H Street, and in the larger area north of Capitol Hill.

Tuesday, September 30, 2014

WBJ: Two New Proposals for H Street

Hikari will stand alone as the rest of the block faces redevelopment

The Washington Business Journal has articles on two projects headed to H Street. The first of these projects is located at 1401 Florida Ave (that weird triangular lot between Florida and H Street as you approach the Starburst Intersection). According to the article, we're looking at a six story mixed-use building with 34 residential units, and 5,600 sqft of retail.

The second article focuses on the Rock Creek Property Group's parcels (on the north side of the 600 block of H Street, and immediately to the right of Hikari Sushi if you stand on the south side of H Street and look towards I Street). RCPG acquired the properties over the summer from Pilgrim Baptist Church. That project will include preservation of the historic facade at 654 H Street (other buildings will be demolished) in the construction of a mixed-use project with up to 32 residential units, and 15,000 sqft of retail.

21 comments:

I like the look of that 1401 project. Wow, we are about to see some unbelievable changes. In five years H Street will be a very, very different place. It will be interesting to see how things progress down Benning and up Bladensburg.

I'm really glad to see these projects finally getting underway. And the residential building across the street next to the soon-to-open CVS will really help bridge the gaps on H Street and join east and west. Now we just need the H Street Connection project to get started. Oh, and hopefully redoing the Auto Zone.

Apparently a permits have been requested for H Street Connection, I also heard rumblings that an $11 construction loan was being finalized, so maybe we'll see rendings for H St Conn soon!

Not sure if the Hikari sushi building held out -- probably so, but it may be for the better; aesthetically speaking, Hikari will be developed sooner than later and hopefully will be a pretty awesome pop up (not the monstrosities on 13th & H south) that will add more character to the 600 block.

Fingers crossed that H Street public transit will improve to tackle the influx of all the new residents coming in.

The Murray's/H St Self Storage deal was in place long before the other 600-block corner deal. All of those buildings with the exception of Hikari Sushi happened to belong to the Pilgrim Baptist Church, which was asked to sell them to Rock Creek Properties as a parcel. Presumably once they got that deal, Rock Creek Properties approached Hikari, but I guess they were rebuffed. But that's why they were able to get the rest of that corner: it was a package deal, not a series of buyouts with a number of different owners. More details on the deal: http://www.bizjournals.com/washington/breaking_ground/2014/05/the-600-block-of-h-street-ne-going-going-gone.html?page=all

More retail, the better. The middle section of H desperately needs more ground level retail. The 600 block is monstrous, so it can't be one or two storefronts, there needs to be a critical mass, so that all of the retail there gets the foot traffic they need to thrive/maximize success.

This is all great news. Knock down Autozone and fill that concrete desert they call a parking lot with ground floor retail and residential up top, then we're really rolling. Eyes on the street, daytime retail, it's what folks in this neighborhood have been fighting for since 68.